


I'll Take Care of Him

by AceDragonElf



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Parenthood, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-19 09:42:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22108891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceDragonElf/pseuds/AceDragonElf
Summary: Just a *slightly* messed up short story I wrote for a college writing class
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character





	I'll Take Care of Him

“He’s still screaming,” my wife, Evelyn, said, leaning against the doorframe to our spacious bedroom.

I pulled my pajama shirt down over my chest and sighed. “If only babies came with instruction manuals.” We were new parents – our son, Keith, had only been born about a month ago – and we still had no idea how to function with this tiny, loud human in our house. “There’s nothing else you can do to shut him up?” I asked. We’d also had the unfortunate luck of the baby being born just before our anniversary and knew the normally special day could never be a relief from life anymore, and certainly not from parenthood.

Evelyn walked toward the bed and stopped right in front of me, resting her hands on my shoulders and lightly gripped the cloth of my t-shirt. “I’ve tried everything. I just can’t – ” Her fingers curled tighter and her head bend down to rest on mine.

I pulled her into a hug before she could finish. “Hey, it'll be okay. Just take a breath and let’s sleep it off.” I couldn’t let her get hysterical again. I knew from years of experience that it wouldn’t go well if I couldn’t get her to let it go and get some sleep. She would be up all night and still be miserable the next day, ruining my mood as well.

“Why did we do this? I knew I shouldn’t have gotten pregnant. Things were so simple before, when it was just you and me. I wish we could go back.”

I sighed, internally this time, so she wouldn’t think I was getting annoyed with her. Silently, I cursed myself for glossing over the warnings of postpartum depression being more common in women who already dealt with depression and anxiety. “Calm down, it’ll be okay. I wish it didn’t have to be like this, but we can’t undo it. We’ll figure something out; something to fix this, alright?”

“You really mean that?” Evelyn pulled back, searching my eyes, a strange, almost imperceptible glint in her own. “We’ll fix this?”

I sighed again. “No…I mean, I don’t know. I’m sure having Keith won’t be all that bad, it will just take some time to get used to everything.” We were so happy before Keith was born – before Evelyn’s pregnancy, even – when we were just two people in love. We were all each other needed or wanted. I wonder now if we ruined that.

“I know,” she said. “Things used to be simpler when it was just us. So much has changed in so little time. I wish…” Evelyn trailed off.

“Don’t,” I cautioned. “This is our life now. Wishing for it to be otherwise will only make us miserable. We will make it work, I promise.” We have to. I leaned back onto the bed and pulled her beside me.

She wrapped her arm around me and rested her head on my shoulder. “I’ll take care of him, I promise,” she whispered. I nodded and closed my eyes, blocking out the noise coming from the baby’s room. We fell asleep to the imagined silence in each other’s arms.

I woke up in the middle of the night, the bed beside me empty. I stumbled out of bed and down the hall, stopping at Keith’s room to flip the light switch on. The empty crib the light revealed didn’t bother me; Evelyn preferred the living room to the small bedroom when caring for Keith. She said staying in the baby’s room made her feel isolated and alone. I turned the light back off and turned back toward our bedroom. Hesitating, I continued down the hall to see Evelyn first, but she wasn’t in the living room. The back door was ajar, and I could see Evelyn’s silhouette standing in the yard. I sighed and went back to bed, assuming she just wanted some time alone with Keith outside to look at the city lights in the distance.

Pulling the covers up to my chin, I closed my eyes, ready for sleep to claim me once again and trying to ignore the fact that Evelyn was missing from my side.

Mere seconds later, my eyes flew open at a thump outside, and I jumped out of bed. I grabbed my sweatshirt and hurried to the back door and shoved my sneakers onto my feet. I scanned the dark yard for figures, but I only saw my wife.

“Evelyn?” I whispered. “Are you okay? I heard noises.”

“I-I’m fine, just go back to bed,” her voice shook as she spoke.

“Evelyn what’s wrong? Did someone attack you? I heard noises and I thought maybe…” I stepped closer and noticed that she was knelt down on the ground, a metal shovel lying beside her. “Where’s Keith?”

Evelyn ran her hand lightly across the surface of the dirt patch in front of her and then twisted her body around to look up at me. “I thought maybe we could bury him right here…”

“Evelyn. Where is he?” I demanded and reached down, grabbing her shoulder.

“Calm down, Mike. He’s over there, sleeping,” she pointed toward the house where I could just make out the shape of the baby carrier. “I told you I would take care of him, didn’t I?” She reached for the shovel, pushing herself up with the leverage from its handle and kissed me. “He’s fine. But I was just thinking…you said you wanted things to be back to the way they were.” She lowered her head and spoke so softly, I could barely hear her. “I thought that maybe since we both wanted that, we could…”

Evelyn looked back up at me and tears began to pool in her eyes. “I don’t know, Mike…I just can’t do this.”

I took a deep breath in an attempt to gather my composure. I couldn’t leave her alone with Keith. I put my arm around her and guided her to the door. “Let’s get you back to bed.”


End file.
